The U.S. Rules against Chinese Firms in Oil Well Pipe Case

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) ruled on May 3 that Chinese companies hurt American firms by selling oil well pipes at unfairly low prices. Chinese steel pipe producers will face anti-dumping tariffs of up to 99.14%.

"A U.S. industry is materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports of certain oil country tubular goods from China that Commerce has determined are sold in the United States at less than fair value," said the USITC in a statement.

As a result of the USITC's affirmative determinations, the U.S. Commerce Department will issue an anti-dumping duty order on imports of these products from China.

The U.S. Commerce Department said on April 22 that it preliminarily determined that Chinese producers/exporters have sold seamless pipe in the United States at 32.39 to 98.37 percent less than fair value.

Imports of certain seamless pipe from China were valued at an estimated 182.3 million U.S. dollars in 2009, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

Commerce said that it is currently scheduled to make its final determination in September 2010.

The protectionist moves by the Obama administration will ultimately hurt the U.S.-China trade relations, which are becoming more and more important due to the global financial crisis, economists warned.

Globally, new requests for protection from imports in the first half of 2009 are up 18.5 percent over the first half of 2008, according to the World Bank-sponsored Global Anti-dumping Database.

That increase follows a 44 percent increase in new investigations in 2008. And China has become the main target of the rising protectionism.